Emery is 7 months!

So far January has been pretty typical....Ben went skiing in Steamboat for six days, Emery had her first cold, the weather has been freezing (until the past two days) and we've basically been recovering from the craziness of Christmas. Emery continues to thrive and brightens our days in countless ways. The past four weeks have been especially fun with her. Now that she sits unassisted, it's a whole new world! Her toys are more fun since she no longer has to play with them laying down and I've learned that her attention span is much longer sitting up. I actually get stuff done around the house! On that note, I've started Emery's "First Year of Life" scrapbook and I am having so much fun. I was so frazzled her first few weeks with us that I didn't take the time to soak it all in. Going back through all her pictures and reports from the pediatrician make me realize just how quickly she changes! Teething is in full bloom and Emery seems to be handling it pretty well. She has two teeth on the bottom and is about to get two more down there (hopefully the middle two so she no longer looks like a vampire, albeit a cute vampire) as well as some top chompers. I was a little worried about the order in which her bottom teeth broke through, but Dr. Beau has assured me that baby teeth have nothing to do with adult teeth and she'll be just fine. But even the pediatrician was shocked when he looked in her mouth with the tongue depresser (I took her in when she had her cold to make sure it wasn't an ear infection). He exclaimed, "well that's weird!" Um, not what you say to a first time mom!! Below are some pictures taken the past week.

Peek a boo!

Downward dog!

Emery is very close to crawling. In the meantime, she strengthens her core by doing yoga poses such as "the plank." Cracks me up!

Christmas in Grand Haven (Ben's hometown)

This was our year to spend Christmas with Ben's family in Michigan. I am so glad that Emery's first Christmas was a white one! We had a fabulous visit with Ben's parents, brother, sister-in-law, little Austinator and all the wonderful people of Grand Haven. We did lots of partying, played lots of games, and spent every second enjoying being together. What a blast!

Perfect timing....Emery has just started to sit up by herself, so her duck tub was brought along for the trip. He's much easier to pack than a regular baby bathtub. This was her first time in the duck. She LOVES it!!

Emery wasn't grinning like this because of all the gifts.....it's because of all the gift WRAPPING.

Showing off her party outfit for the Clickners' open house.

Austin and Emery got a kick out of each other. I know they will be playmates in the coming years. I'm sure Emery will follow Austin around like a little sister and get into all sorts of trouble.

Gorgeous snow! Emery didn't really know what to think. We head out west to Steamboat in February where she'll be seeing lots more of the white stuff (hopefully). Although she's too young to ski this year, her daddy has high hopes for her on the slopes.

Thank you, Linda and Jerry, for hosting all of us and giving Emery such a memorable first Christmas.

Christmas in Greenville 12/21

My family (Mom, Dad, Nanny, Alison, Brian, Hayes and all the dogs) came to Greenville the day before Ben and I left for Michigan to celebrate Christmas. I prepared a Shepherd's pie dinner and we feasted and did gifts. Of course Hayes and Emery really didn't have a clue what was going on, but they sure did enjoy playing with each other. I never tire of watching those two interact.
The dining room all set for our dinner

Emery LOVED the wrapping paper....wearing it, eating it, crinkling it, etc.

Mom assisted the babies with their gift opening.

Parties, Parties, Parties!

Ben and I hosted our annual Christmas party this past Friday night. Of course I was too busy being the hostess with the mostest to take any pictures, but we had a great time and hope to continue making this a tradition. Then Sunday my parents hosted a Sip N' See so that their friends could meet Hayes and Emery. The party was a small little gathering at their house and Alison and I took advantage of the situation to get our Christmas card pictures taken. We had a great time catching up with all the families we've known our entire lives. What a great group!
Dad with his "Delta buddies," Al and Ron

Kay, Dad, Scott, Kathy and Alison

Stephens pic

The guests of honor

One of our Christmas card picture rejects. Trying to get a dog, a baby and a husband to all look at the same camera (with their eyes open, Ben!) proved to be quite challenging.

Now I'm off to the mall to finish my Christmas shopping! (Hopefully).

It's the most wonderful (busy) time of the year!

Well, Thanksgiving came and went in a big blur and now we are in the thick of the Christmas hustle and bustle. Whew! I am exhausted just thinking about the past several weeks. For Thanksgiving the entire Slagel clan headed down to my parents' house in Atlanta. Alison and I ran the Thanksgiving half marathon (our fifth time doing it!) and then Alison and Brian hosted everyone for a big turkey dinner. What a crew! I had so much fun and Ben and I really enjoyed that we were both able to celebrate with both our families......and we had Greg, Donna, Alicia, Kriya, Beau and Beau's parents on hand to celebrate as well. The more, the merrier! Now onto Christmas......Alison and I kicked off the season by taking Hayes and Emery to visit the Santa Claus at Phipps Plaza. He's legendary. Hayes and Emmy were completely unphased by Santa and we had a blast wheeling them around all the super fancy shops in their prams.

Brian joined us on his lunch break and Mom, Dad and Nanny were also on hand to witness the Santa experience. Such a fun afternoon. The shopping in Greenville just can't compete with Phipps!

Scottsdale

I just took my first vacation from Emmy last week. Augh! Ben and I headed west to Scottsdale, AZ, for a three night stay at The Rocks resort. Although I had a wonderful time with my husband, I couldn't wait to get home to Diva! The trip was excellent, though. The Rocks is super nice and Ben and I totally indulged ourselves....sipping champagne in our hot tub, getting a massage (me), reading, running, fancy dinners. It was heaven....except that if I let myself think about Emery I got really sad.

Ben's aunt and uncle live in nearby Cave Creek, AZ, so we headed up to see them one afternoon. Their house is really cool and they have lots of animals (dogs, horses, birds) and even some hummingbirds that may as well be pets! Ben and I tried to bribe Quincy and Shorty with carrots.

One of the tame hummingbirds.

Working our way up to the top of Pinnacle Peak

Our hot tub....ahhhh.

Halloween

Brian, Alison and Hayes came up to Greenville for trick-or-treating. The weather was less than ideal, but the rain did hold off during the nieghborhood pizza party and costume parade. Unfortunately, the kids going door to door got soaked as the rain picked up again around 7:00 p.m. At least it was warm! We had lots of trick-or-treaters come to the house....all of our candy is GONE. Emery was dressed as the cutest panda EVER and Hayes was a fierce little Blue Angels pilot. Thanks for coming to visit!